When you live a life of obligation, it steals from you your strength. Wisdom allows you to harness your strength.*
Erwin McManus

the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control**
The Apostle Paul

In the Potawatomi language strawberries are “heart berries,”
Betraying the creation myth in which the berries grow from
the heart
of Skywoman’s deceased daughter.

A young Robin Wall Kimmerer would gather and consume these in great numbers,
An older Kimmerer ponders on more than a
berry-filled tummy, how

the gift of berries was from the fields themselves^.

It got me to thinking about the fruits of our lives,
How we produce these for others,
How we have to and we want to
because they are our heart-fruit.
And whilst people don’t always find their way to them,
Someone will.

*Erwin McManus’ The Way of the Warrior;
**Galatians 5:22-23a;
Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass.